PARIS — The faces appear almost like a mirage in the Amazon rainforest. Projected onto the trees, the portraits of indigenous Brazilians are sometimes crisscrossed by the sky or merged with the foliage.
The 2016 “Blood Forest” project by French photographer and street artist Philippe Echaroux aimed to raise international awareness about the Surui tribe, which is a victim of massive deforestation and gold washers, who did not hesitate to violate their territory to seize deposits of precious stones. Every day, more than 300 truckloads of illegally cut timber leave the territory.
Since then, Echaroux, dubbed a street artist 2.0, has organized other projections with ecological and social messages. From natural environments to city walls and glaciers, his ephemeral light installations range from Amazon Indigenous fighting to save their environment to Cubans committed to their freedom of expression.
An art that leaves no trace
“My ecological awareness undoubtedly stems from my passion for outdoor sports,” he says. Although Echaroux has a diploma in special education, his first passion is for outdoor activities. Between climbing and kitesurfing, the artist evolves in natural environments and is keen to leave no trace in the places he visits.
“We are part of the living world. Neither superior nor inferior to other species, we are an ingredient in a great recipe,” he says.
Now world-renowned, Echaroux began photography as an autodidact. He soon turned to street art, which he felt allowed him to combine his taste for the social with his love of nature. As he began to gain recognition for his lighting techniques, he wanted to differentiate himself by offering exhibitions with as little impact as possible.
My aim was to create projects that would have an impact while respecting the environment.
“By its very nature, street art leaves traces,” he explains. “My aim was to create projects that would have an impact while respecting the environment. My art was increasingly focused on the protection of living things, and I thought it made sense to defend ecology with an art form that was itself ephemeral.”
Driven by this idea, Echaroux began by hanging his photos using helium balloons or poster putty. Several years ago, he decided to trade painting and collaging for light. His portraits are projected directly onto urban or natural surfaces.
“This process can have a few technical constraints, as they’re not visible for very long. But because we ourselves are ephemeral, creating a work that lasts forever can have a presumptuous side,” he says.
Highlighting ecological peril
With his ephemeral projections that respect the places he takes over, Echaroux revolutionizes street art techniques, offering art that is both gentle and committed. His camera has captured the faces of Amazon Indigenous, as well as the Himbas, a people facing the consequences of global warming in Namibia, and the Sami in Lapland.
“While these tribes are different, they all have one thing in common: They are all seriously threatened by an ecological peril that we, as Westerners, are generally the cause of,” he says. Over the years, Echaroux has learned to draw parallels between people who, without knowing one another, face similar problems. He insists on the collective dimension of his work with indigenous peoples.
“Without people in front of you, there’s no photo. A portrait is best taken by two people. My aim is not to produce a whole catalog, but to ensure that people have a good time. The most important thing is the time we spend together on location,” he says, noting that during his stays, he shares the daily life of the tribes.
Some Amazon Indigenous laughed at me because I didn’t know how to talk to trees.
While each encounter is unique, the photographer links them all by their benevolence, but also a touch of resignation.
“With the exception of Brazil, where one leader went to work for Google, most people don’t have the time to get involved in politics. It’s important for me to feed off that,” he says. In 2015, Almir Narayamoga Surui, chief of the Paiter-Suruí tribe, set up a 50-year plan to preserve his forest in partnership with Google Earth. The application is intended to show everyone the deterioration of the Amazon rainforest.
For Echaroux, the moments he shares with the locals enable him to change his outlook on certain aspects of his daily life. Meeting people who really suffered from thirst prompted him to pay particular attention to his use of water.
“In the Amazon, some Indigenous laughed at me because I didn’t know how to talk to trees,” he says. “For them, it makes as much sense as driving a car does for us. All these little things make me see our society differently.”
A social dimension
Determined to use strong ecological symbols, Echaroux explores the places most threatened by the environmental crisis. A year after his work in the Amazon, he projected faces and graffiti on glaciers in the Chamonix region of the French Alps.
“It was a real expedition,” he says. “Moving around on this terrain in the middle of the night was complicated. It’s moving, it’s noisy. This time, it wasn’t an exchange with people, but with the environment.”
And whatever the medium, Echaroux insists on the meaning he puts behind his work: “I don’t do beauty for beauty’s sake. My art has no meaning if it doesn’t highlight people, or at least draw attention to them.”
With a heterogeneous following, the photographer aims to speak to the general public about ecology and emphasizes the social dimension of his street art: “I want to talk about ecology in a gentle way, but it also has to be fun. For it to be accessible to everyone, it has to be art without instructions.” Echaroux believes these images can create change.
“Photos can have a powerful emotional impact for a microsecond. But it’s important to document the projects to go beyond the images, because they don’t stand on their own.” Echaroux makes an effort not to use his art only to denounce, but also to send positive messages: “The aim is to get the public to react around paradoxes.”
Eager to take on new projects, Echaroux will be projecting portraits of sportsmen and women in the historic center of Le Mans, France throughout summer 2024 (as Paris hosts the Olympic Games). He has also created a documentary series, called “The World in Lights,” in which he meets populations particularly threatened by climate change. It highlights the interconnectedness of all species and the need to respect our planet.
